The sand eel is a bait fish that everyone bait fishing in Europe should know. Why? The answer is very simple, because the sand eel often catches more fish than any other bait. Exactly why the sand eel is such a popular pray among the predators in the sea is hard to say. But it is a fact that you can catch almost all species when you have a live sand eel at the end of your line.

What a bloody life being a sandeel pretty much everything wants to eat you not only below the surface but above it as well birds love them as well,

The sandeel is a very effective bait fish for almost all popular saltwater sports fish in Europe from Spain to Scotland, and in the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas. Sand eel is the first choice pray for popular species such as trout, salmon, bass, mackerel, garfish and Pollack

This sandeel will catch you fish pretty much wherever you are in the country in fact don’t stop at sea species they will also catch many fresh water species as well including trout.

A fantastic addition to your fly box

These sandeel headz are probably the best out there on the market for a realistic sandeel here is a simple step by step to make this stunning pattern, to purchase the headz and materials please visit

Deercreeks sandeel heads come in 3 sizes small medium and large the full dimensions can be found on their website, the come on a sheet which the headz can be easily peeled of as they are flexible I don’t see the problem that sometimes happens of paper coming of and sticking to the backing, with these being flexible I can’t see that ever being a problem.

For the purpose of this step by step ive used the large size

Firstly you need to add a couple of wraps of thread towards the front of the hook; you’ll notice that I’ve not started it right at the hook eye this is because the nose of the eel will sit there.

So take a head and hold it up against the hookshaft and place your thumb at the point where the body stops just before the hook bend , once you have this mark take the head off

Now lay down a thread base to the thumb point, all the thread will be hidden when you have the heads on

Add some glue to the thread base either croc glue or power glue, don’t use super glue as after Appling uv cured products it turns cloudy. even after it dry’s

Next thing is to take a very thin piece of your chosen body material in this case im using gliss and glint plus fibre as it carries a very nice sparkle all the way through it, you can of course use any materials you like but the key is to keep the material to a minimum the material that’s spare at the front you can either cut it off or if you want a slightly thicker head then fold it back and whip it down

Add your back colour and whip down to the thumb point, the length of the body can be anything you like but keep both pieces the same length you can if you wish taper the tails or just cut them to a point

Whip of your thread and then add a small amount glue to hold the headz in position

The head now in place and ready for a uv cure head

I start by filling any gaps with a reliable uv cure I use diamond hard from deercreek as it does actually cure tack free, I find its better to use small amounts and build up any fill you need to do a small bit at a time until you have it filled.

When the gap is filled all that’s left to do is apply a final coat all the way round the head to seal it, of course you can if you want just glue them on but I think if you’re going to use the best then use the best methods to achieve it

This is only the first tie I have done with the sandeel headz I will add more pictures below here as I do them